


The Good In Me

by johndeaconuwu



Series: Harley Keener: Part Time Nurse, Full Time Booty Call [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Harley is a nurse at SI, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Musician!Harley, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter Parker isn’t spiderman, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, peter parker is sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-14 17:16:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18952507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johndeaconuwu/pseuds/johndeaconuwu
Summary: Peter Parker-Stark was your average 16 year old bookworm, except he has Metastatic Bone Cancer. After he comes down with Rheumatic fever his Mom and Dad decide it's best to assign their most trusted nurse, 18 year old Harley Keener, to be their son's caretaker.





	1. He’s Sick.

It was a normal Friday at work for Harley, he was just tending to the dumb interns who burnt their hands doing God knows what in the labs and scolding his sister over the phone for not cleaning her bedroom that morning.

The normal day didn’t last long though, the emergency alarms in the medical wing started going off. 

The nurses and doctors all knew what it meant. Something happened to Stark’s kid. 

All the nurses and Doctors were trained to know what every alarm meant. This one specifically meant that Peter Parker-Stark was hurt or something serious happened to him.

Harley ran out of his office, rushing to the ER in the wing, his medical kit in hand, and boy was Tony grateful to see him. He was Tony’s top nurse, since he had known Harley since before he was even living in New York. 

Harley was the first person to make it to the ER, 

“Tony, I’m here, what’s up?” 

“He’s sick Harley, he’s really sick.” 

“I know, Tony, it’s gonna be ok.” 

 Once the other nurses reached the ER, Harley went with Peter into the back room, while Tony was held back by the other nurses. 

"Hey Pete, it's Harley, we've met a few times, how are ya feelin' kid?"

Peter opened his eyes slightly at the familiar voice, a weak smile spread across his face,

"Hey, Harls." 

His voice was raspy, but weak. The boy closed his eyes again. Harley smiled softly at the younger. 

“Hey bud. You with me?” 

Harley asked him quietly, pushing Peter’s mop of brown off of his forehead so he could press the back of his hand against Peter’s warm skin. 

Peter hummed softly, letting Harley know he was indeed with him. His eyes fluttered open just the slightest bit, the dark brown eyes looking up at Harley from under thick lashes. 

“there’s my Pete. You hanging in there bud?” 

“I’ll be ok. I think.” 

Harley smiled at Peter. 

About two years ago Peter was diagnosed with Metastatic Bone Cancer, which has been slowly already through the rest of his body. They had been able to get rid of most of the Cancer, but Peter still wasn’t quite cancer free. 

“You were he just a week ago with Strep, scaring the shit out of me and your dad for fun now?” 

Peter laughed weakly, 

“haha very funny.” 

Peter said as sarcastically as he could in his current state. 

“Let’s see what’s going on. Shall we?”

~~~~~~~~

Tony and Pepper sat in the hallway outside of Peter’s room anxiously. They had been doing tests on their son to figure out what was wrong for the past few hours. Tony’s leg was bouncing a mile a minute, then door slid open. 

Harley walked out, the bags under his eyes seemed more prominent then they were two hours ago. 

"Took a while to find out what was going on, but we think it's Rheumatic fever, his joints are swollen, his hands are jolting, and he has some small lumps forming under the skin on his throat. He'll have a high fever for a few days but he should be better by Monday." 

Harley said quietly, 

"He's already so weak, we'll just keep him here overnight. We'll check up on his cancer too, see if any progress has been made."

Tony nodded, trying not to wake his wife, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Harley had turned around to go check on Peter's IV again, but Tony stopped him. 

"Harley, I need to speak with you, it'll only take a sec."

Harley nodded, sitting on the floor in front of the older man. 

"I know Peter's been getting worse, I know you've been trying to hide his recent scans." 

Harley looked down, "I just didn't want to worry you, Tony." 

"I know kid, but he's much more sick than you want him to be, and you know that." 

"I can help him! I know I can." 

"I don't think you can't, that's why I'm asking you and your family to move into the tower so you can be Peter's personal nurse. You'll get a whole new office with more supplies and I'm giving you a full clearance pass so you and Peter can work in my lab together, he needs a lab buddy now that I'm so busy with the baby coming." 

Harley didn't know what to say, Tony was asking him and his family to move into the tower with him. He was gonna be able to go into Tony's lab whenever he wanted to. He'd have his own room, somewhere he could finally spread out his instruments. A place his sister and him can go smoke without their mom yelling at them for stinking up the apartment. 

"Tony. I'd absolutely love to!" His grin was a mile wide, 

"I'll speak with your mom. Now, go take care of my son." 

Harley nodded, putting on his nurse face, and power walked back into the hospital room.  


	2. But He Doesn’t Act Like It.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s hard to believe Peter has cancer. He’s so happy-go-lucky it’s hard to tell he gets hooked up to an IV the moment he gets home from school.

Peter went to school on Monday, just like Harley had predicted. The fever had finally gone and the swelling in his joints went down. Peter was happy to be back at school, he had been picked up early on Friday due to a high fever cause his teachers are paranoid he’s gonna die in one of their classes or some dumb shit like that. 

But he was so damn happy to be back, it didn’t even matter. Here, the only people who knew he had a life threatening disease were some of his teachers and Ned. He was treated normally, he did get bullied, but that never bothered him much anyway.

Today was a little different, he had a small IV attached to to the back of his hand that’ll make sure he has enough liquids in his body. But he could easily cover it up with his sweater sleeve. He wasn’t sure how people would react when they saw a scary looking tube attached to one out their classmate’s hands with a layer of medical tape surrounding the needle. But he thinks Everything should be fine. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Everything was very not fine. Everyone was staring daggers at Peter's hand. They knew he was basically skin and bones, but seeing a IV shoved into his bony hand must have set off some kind of alarm in his classmates heads. Betty was the first to approach him, in private, thank God. 

"Hey Peter?" She asked softly, resting her hand lightly on his arm. "Are you ok? I noticed the IV in your hand. Is everything alright?"  

Peter smiled at her with tired eyes, "I'm fine Betty, I just came down with something last Friday, they just wanted to make sure I had plenty of liquids." 

Betty didn't look too convinced, but she just nodded.

Flash seemed to notice Peter's already weak state depleting but instead of being kind to the sick boy, he took advantage of his weakness. 

"Awe... look at poor Penis! Looks like your not as strong as you think you are, huh Parker?" 

Flash pushed Peter, which is something he had never done before.

“Can you just leave me the fuck alone, Flash, you’re such an asshole!” 

“Fuck off Parker!” 

It was usually verbal punches, not physical ones, like what was about to come. A fist collided with Peter's jaw, which kinda hurt, actually, it hurt like fucking hell. Peter's hand shot up, holding onto his jaw. Which was a mistake, because Flash grabbed his IV and yanking it out of Peter's hand, ripping a pained scream out of Peter's throat. Flash shoved Peter one more time, causing the sick boy to fall to the ground, before he ran off. 

Peter's scream had caught the attention of Peter's classmates and teachers, who rushed to the weak boy's side. 

"Someone call his Parents!" He heard a voice call, he wasn't sure who, but he was thankful they said it. 

About thirty minutes later a very angry Happy and Harley walked into the school. Harley rushed into the office, 

"I swear, I don't come to school for one day and you get beat up. Pete, are you ok?"

Peter's cheeks were wet and his eye glossy, a big, ugly bruise was blooming on his jaw. Harley carefully took Peter's face in his hands, 

"Pete, are you ok?"

Peter finally looked Harley in the eyes. He smiled tiredly at his friend, but after he nodded softly, his face fell, then he shook his head no, and started softly crying. 

"Awe, darlin' come here." 

Harley pushed himself off the ground so he could help Peter up and hold him. Peter buried himself into Harley's hold.

Harley patted Peter's brown curls softly. Hushing him softly, he kissed his temple. like Tony did to Peter right before a treatment. Peter immediately calmed down, his sobs became more quiet, until he was just shaking in Harley's arms. Happy returned to the waiting room in the office, his face blank and his eyes glassy as he told the boys to get in the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony and Pepper were waiting in the living room of the penthouse when the boys arrived. The moment Peter walked out of the elevator Pepper ran to her son, grabbing him and hugging him close to her body, Peter clung tightly to his mom, trembling lightly. 

"Oh. My poor, poor baby. It's ok my love." She mumbled lightly into her son's hair, kissing it lightly. Pepper held onto Peter as she looked at Harley, she took one of her arms and opened it towards Harley. 

Harley moved toward the mother and son and hugged the two. 

"Thank you, Harley."

"It's really nothing Pep." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was midnight, Peter had just gone to bed, Harley was downstairs helping Pepper clean the kitchen after all the Avengers had dinner in the Stark penthouse. 

"Thank you again, Pep, for letting mom and Abbie stay too." 

"He needs you Harley, just as much as he needs Tony and I. He doesn't act like he's sick, but he is, and he needs someone like you to keep him sane." 

“At this point, I think he’s been the one keeping me sane.” 

Harley huffed our a laugh at looked at Pepper, she smiled sweetly at him. And he knew everything was going to be ok.


	3. Everything is Fine

Peter was bored. His parents refused to let him go to school for the next week. He was sprawled out on his bed, throwing a bouncy ball at his ceiling. 

"Young Boss, Harley has arrived, would you like me to send him up?"

FRIDAY's voice echoed through his room, Peter perked up immediately, 

"Yes, please send him up, Fri!"

 Within two minutes the bell of the elevator rang through the penthouse, 

"Pete! I'm here!"

"My room!" 

Peter could hear the older's footsteps on the marble stairs. 

"Morning, Bambi." 

Harley smiled, his southern accent still thick from a morning of no words. The older boy set down a huge guitar-shaped case on the floor by the bed.  

"Cowboy."

Peter nodded a greeting at Harley. Harley snorted out a laugh and shook his head, throwing himself onto Peter's bed, next to the smaller boy. Peter, being the clingy shit he is, pressed himself against the nurse's side. 

"what's in the case?"

"I told you I played bass, right?"

Peter hummed remembering the conversation the two had a few weeks ago during one of Peter's check-ups. 

"Thought I could bring it, maybe play some stuff." 

"Really?"

"Why not? Maybe I could teach you a song or two."

 Peter nodded, leaning back into Harley, before making a face, and pulling back again.

"What is it?"

"You smell like cigarettes."

"Shit, I'm sorry, I usually don't smoke before I come visit you. I just forgot today." 

Peter scrunched his nose at Harley, before getting off the bed, walking over to his closet, grabbing a sweatshirt, and throwing it at Harley's head. 

"How'd you get my sweatshirt?"

Peter shrugged,

 "You left it here last week. I just held onto it."

Harley just smiled and shook his head, stripping off his old shirt and pulling the sweatshirt over his head. Peter smiled and hopped back on the bed, curling up right next to Harley. Harley laughed, wrapping his arm around Peter's shoulder.

"Better?" 

Peter hummed, 

"Much."

Harley laughed again, curling up with Peter while turning on a movie. The two boys soon drifted off to sleep. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony and Pepper made it home around 5, tired from a long meeting in LA. They looked around the bottom floor of the penthouse for Peter and Harley.

"FRIDAY, where are the boys?"

"They're both asleep in Young Boss's bedroom."

Tony smiled, and made his way up to Peter's bedroom quietly with Pepper in tow. 

Peter's door was slightly ajar, Tony lightly pushed the door all the way open. The view before him made Tony's heart melt. Harley and Peter were in the middle of Peter's bed, an IV pole next to the bed with a tube attaching itself to Peter's left hand, connected to Peter's hand was his skinny, curled up body sleeping deeply. Right next to Peter was Harley, who was curled protectively around the much smaller boy's frame, holding his waist tightly as if he was gonna disappear. 

"FRIDAY, save this picture, email it to me." 

Tony whispered. 

"Of course, Boss."

The AI whispered back. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter was woken up by a pillow hitting him in the face.

"Rise and shine sunshine! Time for dinner! Your Aunt Nat is about 30 seconds from coming up here and waking you up herself!"

Harley's southern accent rang out through the room.

"Okay, okay, I'm up. Ow! Harley I'm up!"

Harley continued to hit the 16 year old over the head with the pillow until he was fully out of bed. Once the boy was out of bed, Harley was so busy laughing he didn't notice a tiny body charging towards him. Harley let out a loud 'oof' when Peter rammed his small body into him, knocking them both over onto the carpet beneath them. Both boys were laughing like maniacs while Harley hugged Peter tightly, keeping both of them on the ground. Natasha walked in on the scene that had just played out. She propped herself on the door frame, watching the two teenage boys cackle on Peter's fuzzy carpet. 

"младенец паук, маленький дьявол it's dinner time."

Both of the boy's heads popped up, eyes wide while Natasha laughed at them. 

"мама паук! We'll be down in a second."

Peter yelped as Harley tickled his sides. She shook her head at the two boys. 

"Don't take too long." 

Was the last thing Natasha said to the boys before leaving the room. 

"Peter?"

Harley whispered, 

"Yeah?"

"What did your aunt just call me?"

A smile grew on Peter's face, 

"Little Devil."

"Sounds about right."

 


	4. Until it's not.

No one was prepared for it, it had been almost two and a half months of Peter not being brought to the medical wing without notice. He seemed to have gotten so much better, but then he wasn't better. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, most of the employees from the medical wing had already left the building, leaving behind only a few nurses and doctors to finish off the day of work. Everything was calm and quiet, until it wasn't. No alarms, no flashing lights, nothing, just blood curdling screams and loud sobs. For the first time ever, Harley wasn't the first one to the scene. It was hard for him to even get past the crowd of doctors huddled around a stretcher. When he did, his heart sank, on the stretcher laid a motionless Peter, cheeks stained with tears and nose bloody. 

"Hold up his head! Keep it at an incline!"

"Get the oxygen mask!"

”Is there a God damned heartbeat?!” 

"Where the fuck is my stethoscope?!"

"Does he need surgery?!"

Harley recognized the last voice, Pepper, very shaken, very scared, but Pepper. Harley looked up at the very terrified (and very pregnant) woman. He pushed his way around Peter's stretcher to get to the mother. 

"Pep. Pep. Hey, I'm gonna need you to look at me, no, not Peter, me. Look. At. Me."

Pepper finally tore her eyes away from her son, 

"You need to sit down." 

Pepper shook her head lightly. 

"Pep, I know it's hard, but I need you to sit down." Harley grabbed her shoulders lightly, turning her around, and leading her to a chair. 

He sat the terrified woman down, moving his hands to they were lightly touching her forearms. 

"Hi. Hey, recognize me? It's Harley."

"Harley, yes, hi."

"Hey Pep, what happened?”

"We were just in the kitchen and he stood still for a moment. Then his body started shaking and- and he fell and hit his head and he wasn't breathing and- oh God Harley I thought he died." The mother cried, holding her red face in her hands. 

"He's alright Pep, he's okay. Where's Tony?"

"He's in a meeting I texted him, but I don't think he has his phone."

"Ok. Well, me and those doctors right there are gonna make sure he's ok, alright? I'm gonna call Natasha down and ask her to stay with you, yeah? I gotta go with the doctors."

Pepper nodded her head, still in shock, but coherent. 

After telling FRIDAY to explain the situation to Natasha, Harley was off, wheeling Peter into the back room with a group of four other doctors. 

“Please be ok. Please be ok. Please be ok.” 

Was the chant Harley was repeated to himself as they rushed the teen down the halls of the wing, in times like this he wished the wing was a lot smaller. 

~~~~~~~~

 

Harley ended up in Peter's hospital bed,  that wasn't the plan at all, but the boy had woken up for just a minute, with the almost silent wish to 'Please stay.'

So he stayed. And he laid with Peter. The boy clung to Harley, even in his sleep the 16 year old craved human contact. 

It was a hard week for the Stark family (and Harley). Peter was constantly in and out of consciousness, when he was awake, it was only for about a minute and it always consisted of him further attaching himself to Harley. 

"He really scared Pep, and Pep scared me, do you have any idea what happened."

Tony was standing at the end of the bed, watching Harley stare worriedly at Peter's chest, which was rising and falling softly. 

"We think it was a seizure, and when he fell he got a pretty severe concussion. But we're not 100 percent certain yet."

Tony just hummed. 

"Oh! I talked to the school, got the kid who beat Peter up suspended, it's not what I was aiming for, but the kid's mom was an actual psycho." 

"Sounds like Flash's mom." 

Peter's weak voice cut through the room. 

"Hey Pete. Feel like staying awake this time?"

"I think so... How's mom?"

"Shes fine Bambi, worried sick about you. But she's fine."

"Can I see her?"

"Not until you've been awake for at least two minutes, Pete."

Harley answered the question, running his hand through Peter's greasy curls. 

"And you should probably shower, first. You're disgusting." 

"Gee, thanks, you're not much better, Keener."

Peter scrunched up his nose, smelling the natural scent of cigarettes on Harley's skin, Peter refused to admit he had grown to find the smell of cigarettes and vanilla comforting, and that he only like it cause that's what Harley smells like. 

"Oh really Stark? Cause if you didn't like how I smelled you wouldn't have been clinging to me for the past week."

Peter huffed, pouting at Harley. 

"I win."

Harley smiled at Peter, a triumphant giggle leaving his lips. 

The boys hadn't noticed Tony's exit, but Harley quickly leaned forward, placing a shy kiss on Peter's nose.

Peter squeaked, but quickly shot up and pecked Harley on the lips. It was quick, nothing more than a quick touch but to Harley it was everything. He looked at Peter, zoning out.

"I'm sorry, did I cross the line? God, I'm really awful at reading situations. I'm so-"

Peter was cut off by Harley's lips. Soft, warm, the scent of cigarettes and vanilla filled Peter's nostrils. It was in that moment, he knew he had to get better. For his mom, for his dad, for his sister on the way.  _For Harley._


End file.
